Physics 101-2 is the fall semester of a two semester course in
introductory physics. This section is for students in the
postbaccalaureate premedical program only. The other
section, Physics
101-2 is for undergraduate students.

Learning goals:

With a broad brush, here's an outline of our goals in this course:

Part I: Force and Motion (8 weeks). We begin the
course with the problem of motion: velocity and acceleration, motion
in one and two dimensions, force, and Newton's Laws. Our first goal
is to learn to describe the motion of objects (cars,
projectiles, people, animals) without asking why the objects move as
they do. This subject is called kinematics. We then turn to
the why problem, called dynamics. Since antiquity,
natural philosophers have thought about why objects move the way
they do, but the first really useful predictive framework was given
by Isaac Newton. To this day, it remains unsurpassed in simplicity
and predictive power within its regime of validity: at distances
larger than atomic scale, at speeds smaller than the speed of light,
and away from strong gravitational fields like those of black holes.
Within the framework of Newtonian Mechanics, our goal is to be able
to identify the forces that act on objects and to predict their
motion, or vice-versa, in realistic situations we are likely to
encounter or read about in our lives.

Part II: Conservation Laws (3 weeks). Once we have
understood how to apply Newton's Laws to a variety different types
of forces and motion (as well as the generalization of these laws to
rotational motion), we turn next to conservation laws:
the conservation of momentum and the conservation of
energy. These tools can be used to dramatically simplify
problems of motion, particularly when the number of objects involved
is two or more. Our goal is to be able to apply energy and momentum
conservation, as well as the related concepts of work and impulse,
to realistic problems that boil down to relating initial and final
states, when we are not concerned with the details of motion at
intermediate times.

Part III: Properties of Matter (2 weeks). New
simplifications occur in systems comprised of many atoms or
molecules. The conservation of energy leads naturally to an
investigation of the thermal properties of matter. Newton's Laws
lead to a description of the motion of fluids.

Quantitative and Conceptual Reasoning. Physics is
a powerful approach to understanding the world around us. It is a
precise and intensely analytical subject that exercises our logical
and quantitative mental muscles. However, physics is also the
deeply human endeavor of confronting and intuitively understanding
the universe in which we find ourselves through observation and
reflection. It's about the real world, and not a game of plugging
into formulae. Our conceptual goal in this course is to gain
a heightened intuition for the way the real physical world
behaves—to reconcile our physical intuition with the framework
of Newtonian Mechanics (and especially the many demonstrations we
will do), and to explain in ideas rather than computations the
behavior of physical objects in Newtonian terms. Ideally, the
thinking part of solving physics problems is the conceptual
part—the intuitive set-up that we could subsequently hand off
to a machine to calcluate. We will learn explicit problem solving
strategies that emphasize qualitative analysis steps we can use to
clarify and organize a problem. Our quantitive goal in this
course is simply to gain proficiency performing the precise
calculations that "get the details right," after we've already
understood more or less how things will work out from our conceptual
analysis. To foster these goals, all problem sets and exams will
contain a mixture of conceptual and quantitive problems.

Transferrable Goals. There's a good chance you are in this
course because someone has required you to take it. Why? Physics
is great practice for developing the ability to tackle complex
problems by (i) making simplifying assumptions that transform
intractably complex problems into simpler models embodying their
most relevant features and (ii) systematically breaking these
problems into smaller more managable pieces. Mostly likely, this
course was required to help hone your analytical skills through this
rigorous approach to problem solving characteristic of physics.

For those of you in the life sciences, physics is rich in applications:

Why is physics useful for medicine? Our bodies—our
skeletons, muscles, organs, circulatory and nervous systems, the
lenses in our eyes, and cochlea in our ears—all obey the laws
of physics. Their motion and electrical properties are a direct
application of the ideas of this course, and we will try to make
these connections explicit whenever possible. The instruments used
in medicine frequently originate in physics as well, for example,
diagnostic imaging like x-rays and MRI.

For more on the interplay between physics and medicine, see the
following articles from Physics World

We began using the first edition of this book eight years ago and
have received overwhelmingly positive student feedback. The
official textbook for both the postbaccalaurate and the
undergraduate section of the course this year is the third edition.
The textbook incorporates the best practices from physics education
research, and one of the authors writes MCAT problems. The
website ActivPhysics
Online provides a suite of interactive applet-based tutorials
that reinforce the ideas in the textbook. (The link points to the
companion website of Knight's calculus-based textbook, but most of
the applets should be helpful for our algebra-based textbook as
well.)

On reserve in Collier Library:

In addition to the required text, an assortment of other
introductory physics textbooks is on reserve in Collier Library.
You might find it useful to consult these textbooks for a different
perspective. You might also find inexpensive books like Schaum's
Outline of College Physics and ExamKrackers (the latter
designed specifically for the MCAT) to be worth purchasing if you
need additional problem-solving practice (although their problems
may be at a bit lower level than ours).

Format:

Lecture. We will adopt the philosophy that class
time is best spent bringing the material in your textbook to life
through discussion of concepts, problem solving, and demonstrations.
I'll try to restrict lecturing to hitting the highlights of your
reading assignments and to "big picture" ideas. For that reason, it
will be very important for you to stay on top of the reading, and to
read the textbook before the material is discussed in class.

Reading Quizzes. Brief reading quizzes will be given
on a roughly weekly basis through Moodle, to provide added incentive
to keep up to date on the reading. They should only take about ten
minutes each to complete and are open book.

Recitation. The recitation sections will be used to
reinforce what we've learned in class each week. They will be
devoted to working through additional example problems or conceptual
questions, and to difficulties that have come to light on the
homework problems. As needed, the recitation sessions will also
review math that has become rusty.

Laboratory. The laboratory is run independently, but
is a required part of this course. You must successfully perform
all of your assigned labs in order to pass the course.

Homework. Weekly homework problems—some to be
graded, some just for practice—will be assigned throughout the
course. Homework is due each week on Friday 10:10am at the start of
lecture.

Exams. There will be two 90-minute midterm exams and
one 3-hour scheduled final exam. The midterm exams will be held
outside of class 7:30–9:00am Friday 9 October 2015 and
7:30–9:00am Friday 20 November 2015 in Park 243. The final
exam will be held 9:30am–12:30pm in Park 25.

In the event that you are on the border between two grades, class
participation, engagement during lab, and other indications of
effort throughout the course will help to justify the higher
grade.

I hope that there will be much discussion both inside and outside
of class. You are allowed (and encouraged!) to work on the
problem sets together and to form study groups. The solutions you
submit must of course be prepared yourself and not be
reproductions of other people's work.

Accommodations:

Students who think they may need accommodations in this course
because of the impact of a learning, physical, or psychological
disability are encouraged to meet with me privately early in the
semester to discuss their concerns. Students should also contact
Deborah Alder, Coordinator of Access Services (610-526-7351 or
dalder@brynmawr.edu), as soon as possible, to verify their
eligibility for reasonable academic accommodations. Early contact
will help to avoid unnecessary inconvenience and delays.